Alison Geist

Director
Email:
Phone:
269.337.7432
Office:
Dewing 100
Biography
Alison
Geist, M.P.H., is founding Director of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center
for Civic Engagement and co-Director of the Community and Global Health
concentration at Kalamazoo College.
She teaches a service-learning seminar, “Contemporary Issues in Public Health:
An Introduction,” in which students work with community-based
organizations and residents to illuminate and address local issues that in
recent years have included black infant mortality, environmental racism,
implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and nutrition and food justice.
Geist is interested in the intersections among issues of sustainability, public
health, gender, and social justice, with a particular interest in food systems
and women’s health. She lived in Morocco from 1983 – 89, where she worked
in the High Atlas Mountains with village women and the Moroccan Ministry of
Agriculture to conduct qualitative research on maternal and health, range
fuels, cook stoves, and women’s and girls’ roles in livestock production. She
was the first Morocco Director of the Near East Foundation (NEF).
Previously, Geist coordinated several NIMH-funded projects at the University of
Michigan Institute for Social Research in the Center for Research on the
Utilization of Scientific Knowledge. At The Health Institute at Tufts
–New England Medical Center, she was Research Coordinator of a
multidisciplinary, five-university qualitative study of Ethnicity and
Well-Being. She has authored working papers, presentations, and
publications on these topics, and, with Jeanne C. Marsh and Nathan Caplan,
co-authored Rape and the Limits of Law Reform (Auburn House, 1982).
In 2013 she received the Spirit of Health Equity Award from Kalamazoo County
Health and Community Services.
Geist grew up in Michigan, and she holds a BGS and an MPH from the University
of Michigan.
Teresa Denton

Associate Director
Email:
Phone:
269.615.5153
Office:
Dewing 101
Biography
Teresa Denton, M.S.W, is a long time member of the Kalamazoo community and is committed in her role as Associate Director of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement to ensuring that the CCE’s community partnerships are authentic, reciprocal, and sustainable.
Prior to her work with K-12 and higher education, Denton worked in the child welfare field in Monroe, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. Denton began her involvement with Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) and Kalamazoo College in 1998 when the partnership between Kalamazoo College and Woodward School for Technology and Research began. She originally worked for Woodward coordinating partnerships with Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University. With the establishment of the Center for Civic Engagement in 2001 she was hired by Kalamazoo College to grow and support the College’s community partnerships. She has worked for the last 18 years to develop and sustain connections within the city of Kalamazoo that build on community assets and offer opportunities for Kalamazoo College students to learn from and with the community, especially in the area of public education. With the announcement of the Kalamazoo Promise (https://www.kalamazoopromise.com)the CCE worked with grassroots efforts in the community to ensure all KPS students would be ready to take advantage of the Promise. One such initiative was Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), an academic enrichment program at Interfaith Homes Neighborhood Network Center. Denton was one of the founding board members of CAPS in 2005 and continues to serve on the board. Denton has called Michigan home for most of her life and she earned her MSW from the University of Michigan.
Felicia Ford

Operations Manager
Riley Gabriel

Program Associate
Email:
Phone:
269.337.7104
Office:
Dewing 102B (Found attached to the CCE Community Room)
Biography
Riley Gabriel (they/them) graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2021 with a BA in Liberal Arts. They studied English and Environmental Studies with a focus on poetry and conservation. As a student, they worked closely with the Outdoor Programs Office holding positions over their four years as a LandSea intern, gear room worker, and Kalamazoo Outing Club Co-President. They also spent time working with both Residential Life as a resident assistant during their sophomore year and with the Office of Student Activities as a student event programmer during their senior year. Riley has a personal focus on sense of belonging and LGBTQIA2+ advocacy.
Through their role as Program Associate, Riley is primarily responsible for the coordination and mentoring of our student Civic Engagement Scholars (CES), and maintaining CCE social media and marketing. They are also responsible for facilitating ongoing structured reflections and leadership workshops for the CESs throughout the year and ensuring all the programs they supervise are a success. Questions about critical engagement and ongoing reflection? Stop by Riley’s office to chat!
Riley supervises the Policy and Advocacy CCE student-led programs including Just Food Collective, K Votes, Students for Reproductive Freedom, and the Young Adult Program*.
*Temporarily supervising the Goodwill Adult Literacy program*